The release of Satan.
"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison......" Revelation 20v7
Revelation 20v3 says that after the fulfillment of the one thousand years, Satan "must be loosed a little season." The bible never uses the word "must" trivially, and this is all part of the divine plan which must take place. Why must Satan be released for a little while? In order to answer that we do well to consider exactly what this period of one thousand years on this earth will be like.
- For the duration of the period many, many children will be born naturally. World population will reach phenomenal proportions.
- According to Isaiah 65v20, death will be a rarity, and what is made clear in that verse is that there will be no premature infant deaths; there will be no elderly person who does not reach full life maturity; and spasmodic death may occur as a result of divine discipline. We bear in mind in the early period of this world people lived almost one thousand years, and the language of the bible leads us to understand, that these early conditions will prevail during the millennium.
- All children who will be born, will be born in sin as part of Adam's progeny, and therefore subject to death and who will all require a Saviour to reconcile them to God just as we do today.
- The Saviour of the world will be present upon earth all through these years. Just as today his salvation will be freely available to all.
- The millennial children will be no different to modern children, and will have the trait of rebellion against God within them. This trait is clearly indicated in Zechariah 14v17-19. All nations will be invited, once every year, to visit Jerusalem to pay homage to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who refuse to attend this mandatory gathering will suffer as a result. At the end of the period there will be many who will revolt against God. Renewed conditions on earth will not renew hearts.
- Despite all this there will be near perfect conditions on earth, in a material sense, yet there will be imperfection in a spiritual sense, and some problems will arise.
- Some of the conditions on earth will be as follows; peace on earth, the absence of war of any kind, the changing of the instruments of war to the tools of production; there will be full employment; bodily healing when required will be made available "the leaves of the trees shall be for the healing of the nations." Revelation 22v2 We have already said death will be rare; there will be perfect justice on the earth; there will be perfect climactic conditions; wild animals will be tamed; deserts will flourish with flowers and fruit. There will be endless streams of pollution free water; there will be everything that man could ever desire. In Micah 4v4 we are told "they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it." Reading this with other scriptures, there will be no high rise flats but each individual family on their own plot of land with enough food to sustain them. There will be absolute security as indicated by the "unwalled villages".
- Even under such conditions, as the world has never really seen, men and women will still rebel. Wise men and so called experts are telling us today that by the eradication of poverty they will create "utopia." The Millennium proves otherwise; thus we begin to understand why God must release Satan; this is because he must expose the true rebellious nature of the heart of man who after one thousand years of the most blessed conditions on earth they will still rebel against the God of grace. God said through the prophet Jeremiah (17v9) "The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?". We will all know it after the Millennium.
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